Viability Conditions for a Compartmentalized Protometabolic System: A Semi-Empirical Approach
Data(s) |
19/02/2014
19/02/2014
01/06/2012
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Resumo |
In this work we attempt to find out the extent to which realistic prebiotic compartments, such as fatty acid vesicles, would constrain the chemical network dynamics that could have sustained a minimal form of metabolism. We combine experimental and simulation results to establish the conditions under which a reaction network with a catalytically closed organization (more specifically, an (M, R)-system) would overcome the potential problem of self-suffocation that arises from the limited accessibility of nutrients to its internal reaction domain. The relationship between the permeability of the membrane, the lifetime of the key catalysts and their efficiency (reaction rate enhancement) turns out to be critical. In particular, we show how permeability values constrain the characteristic time scale of the bounded protometabolic processes. From this concrete and illustrative example we finally extend the discussion to a wider evolutionary context. |
Identificador |
PLoS One 7(6) : (2012) // e39480 1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/10810/11570 10.1371/journal.pone.0039480 |
Idioma(s) |
eng |
Publicador |
Public Library Science |
Relação |
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0039480 |
Direitos |
© 2012 Piedrafita et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Palavras-Chave | #metabolic closure #lipid vesicles #life #model #evolution #membranes #origins #cells #oligomerization #amphiphiles |
Tipo |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |